Antonino Fogliani

Antonino Fogliani stands among the foremost operatic conductors of his era, with engagements at leading festivals and opera houses worldwide. His operatic scope is broad, centering especially on Rossini while encompassing signature works by Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini; he has also directed stagings of lesser-known pieces by major figures alongside operas by Francesco Morlacchi and Nicola Vaccai. Since 2011 he has served as music director of the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, and since 2017 he has held the post of principal guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. In 2024 he released a recording of Rossini’s Ermione.

Born in Messina, Italy, on June 29, 1976, Fogliani trained in composition with Francesco Carluccio at Bologna’s Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini and received his diploma in piano. He continued at the Conservatorio di Milano, where Vittorio Parisi instructed him in conducting and he earned his degree with highest honors. At the Accademia Musicale Chigiana he pursued further studies in composition with Ennio Morricone and Franco Donatoni, and in conducting with Gianluigi Gelmetti, who subsequently appointed him assistant. His first professional appearance took place in 2001 at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where he led a production of Il viaggio a Reims.

Recognition followed swiftly. Engagements soon included La Scala, where he conducted Donizetti’s Ugo, conte di Parigi and Maria Stuarda; Rome Opera, for Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto and Mascagni’s Amica; and Teatro San Carlo in Naples, for Giovanni Paisiello’s Il Socrate immaginario, along with other prominent European houses. He simultaneously directed symphonic programs with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and the Orchestra Nazionale dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia. His first commercial recording appeared in 2004 on the Dynamic label, featuring Donizetti’s Ugo, conte di Parigi.

Fogliani made his American debut in 2011 at Houston Grand Opera with Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and assumed the music directorship of the Rossini in Wildbad Festival that same year. During his inaugural season he led his own orchestrated version of Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Naxos documented his 2007 festival performance of Mercadante’s Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio in a release issued the following year. In 2017 he became principal guest conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein; in 2018 Italian President Sergio Mattarella named him an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Since 2021 he has taught orchestral conducting at Palermo’s Conservatorio di Musica Alessandro Scarlatti. Naxos has continued to issue recordings drawn largely from Rossini in Wildbad productions, among them Francesco Morlacchi’s Tebaldo e Isolina in 2020 and Rossini’s Ermione in 2024.